November 1943
403
Around the King's Table LOUIS T. TALBOT, Editor-In-Chief
Colessians 3:23 1 would do mighty things for Thee, O Lord! But many humble tasks there were to do. Ere these were finished, day was fading fast. And moments left for glorious deeds were few. I took the Book and opened to these lines— “Do heartily thy tasks as to the . Lord And not to men"—and Thou didst speak to me From out the pages of Thy holy Word. My hungry soul was heark'ning to Thy voice. And this the message that Thou gavest me— The lowliest task becomes a glori ous deed When done with all my might and zeal for Thee. —Earl K. Wyman. Prosperity’s Evils Deputy Chief E. W. Lester, with eighteen years of specialization in ju venile cases in connection with the Los Angeles Police Department, re- ,, cently addressed a group of Sunday- school workers in Los Angeles. In the wealth of / well-organized , material which he presented, some of his listen ers saw a correlation with such pas sages of Scripture as Psalm 119:71: “It is good for me that I have been afflict ed; that I might learn thy statutes.” “During the depression,” Mr. Lester pointed out, “crime and drunkenness decreased materially. In a marked way, divorce also de creased during those years. When a family is fighting a common cause, there is more solidarity, understanding, and willingness to give and take. There is more con sultation among the members. So- called good times offer many op portunities for parents to leave 1 their children alone. With better times, there always come less par ental control, more divorces, more crime.” . He urged Sunday-school teachers to impress upon parents the importance of faithfulness to their children: “This job of being a parent is a full-time responsibility. It does not matter what It is—be it good or bad — that takes a parent’s time from the supervision of his child. The harm is just as great, as far as the effect on the child’s life is concerned.”
Lord whose will for me is ‘good, ac ceptable, and perfect.’ “Strangely enough, I received my report only a few hours after my mother’s operation and learned that my condition, too, was malignant, i went to the operating table with, that knowledge, but also with the under girding grace of God. “ I believe God had a definite pur pose in allowing all this. For one thing, my sister arrived here shortly before Mother’s death, and is remain ing with me temporarily. She ■is in deed one of the many blessings God has bestowed on me at this time. There is a great change in her atti tude toward spiritual things. All of the old antagonism is gone. She says she wants, to accept Christ. Even now, by faith, I am thanking God for her sal vation. “For two days I had a struggle with a vision of myself as an object of pity in the eyes of others because of the double blow to mother and me. I cried out with my whole being against this, and cast myself upon the Lord Jesus for deliverance. Of course, He was faithful and answered my prayer, so that I no longer wanted —or feared—any one’s pity, but in stead desired all to rejoice with me in the fact of the exceeding greatness of God’s love and grace, which become so real and precious at times like this when we turn to Him in simple faith. “There has been one 'outstanding lesson that the Lord has been teach ing me through varying circumstances the last six months. It is the Christian necessity and complete possibility, through Christ, of achieving a tri umphant, joyous, inner peace even while circumstances are black and bad. , “As I look back over this experience of mine, I find that instead of its having been difficult as it ordinarily would h'kve been, it passed through the alchemy of our Lord and became a fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah concerning the Messiah, who was to give ‘beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called Trees of righteous ness, The planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified' (Isa. 61:3). There is no price too big to pay for the rich rewards the Lord gives from the furnace of affliction, so I am thanking God from the bottom of my heart for the privilege He has given me.”
Cause of Thanksgiving at Biola One of the largest groups ever to be enrolled at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles has been registered this fqll. At the present time, 497 students—just six short of the all-time high of 503 in 1921—are in attendance. Of that number, 342 are women and 155 are men. In several cases, brothers and sisters have come together; there are twenty families represented by two or more members at Biola. Of even greater in terest is the fact that fourteen young people are “ second generation stu dents” ; that is, either their parents or grandparents have attended here in earlier years. When the testimony of a school is such that the sons and daughters of her graduates are them selves convinced of its merits, there is cause for abundant praise to God. Caneer— and a Christian’s Triumph Many of the Lord’s people wiil find comfort for their own trials in the fol lowing victorious testimony. It was written in a personal letter to friends at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles: “Before I left Dos Angeles this past summer, I knew my dear mother prob ably would require' an operation, and I went to be with her, not dreaming that her condition would be found to be malignant. However, without writ ing me, she herself was quite sure that it was, and had resigned herself to it. She requested that if it should be cancer, all her friends should pray that the Lord would take her home to Him self quickly. This indeed became our prayer, and how grateful we are to Him for His gracious answer in taking her just six days after the operation, and thus sparing her what might have been a long period of intense suffer ing. In it all, she was so victorious in Christ that the memories are very sweet. “On the evening of the day on which mother was buried, I myself went to the hospital for surgery. As soon as I had arrived at home, I had consulted our physician about a con dition that had been troubling me, and it was necessary to wait eleven days for a report on certain tests that had been taken. It used to be hard for me to wait in uncertainty. I would be filled with inner restlessness. But this time the Lord gave me complete victory so that during the entire period I was delivered from all unrest, fear, and worry. I knew I could trust my
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